Of the 806 unique links shared on the Twitter #MRX community last week, here are 5 of the most retweeted...

• SurveyMonkey gets Zoomerang, TrueSample in MarketTools takeover – Investment firm TPG Capital is buying MarketTools and selling Zoomerang, ZoomPanel and TrueSample to SurveyMonkey in exchange for a stake in the firm. Once the deal is complete in January, SurveyMonkey will have close to 11 million registered users and almost 3 million survey panelists making it what Leonard Murphy calls “the 800-pound gorilla of the space.” Check out his excellent analysis, DIY Gets Empowered.
• GfK in deal to buy Knowledge Networks – GfK intends to acquire Knowledge Networks, the leading probability-based online panel provider. Yes, Virginia, you can do probability sampling online, as Knowledge Networks’ annual revenues of $58M prove.
• 8 Christmas Gifts for Market Researchers – Speaking of the proverbial Virginia and her Christmas question, Annie Pettit of Research Now answers your other Christmas question: what to give the researchers and statisticians in your life! Good suggestions for whatever gift-giving holiday you’re celebrating this month.
• How was it for you? – Robert Bain of Research magazine takes a detailed look at the state of the respondent experience. It’s a great roundup that will teach you a thing or two about survey quality. As Kathryn Korostoff points out, if the SurveyMonkey acquisition of Zoomerang says anything, it is that “survey research is clearly not dead.”
• Sparkler and The Co-operative take top prizes at Research Awards –Research magazine presented 30 awards to industry innovators and role models. Special congratulations to the innovation award winners: Best Innovation to Ipsos and Lumi Mobile for its MobiLive mobile research platform, and the Innovation in Research Methodology Award to Jon Puleston of GMI and Deborah Sleep of Engage Research.
• And the #MRX Tweeter of the Year is... – Still being in the award-giving mood, Research named the top 5 tweeters of the year:
  1. Tom De Ruyck @tomderuyck
  2. Lenny Murphy @lennyism
  3. Cathy Harrison @VirtualMR
  4. Kristin Luck @kristinluck
  5. Tom Ewing @tomewing
  Congratulations are also due to Ray Poynter @RayPoynter and Tom Anderson @TomHCAnderson for being among the top 5 most retweeted of the year. Finally, check out the article for the top 10 buzzwords used on #MRX this year.

From my own analysis of #MRX activity (and from Jon Puleston's #MRX analysis), it’s pretty clear that @researchlive is the most retweeted account of them all by far. Thanks to the staff at Research for all they do to grow the market research industry and blogosphere.